the silence...

As I was showering this morning, listening to the music I had playing, the realization that there was no silence occurred to me. Let me tell you what I mean.

Everyday when I shower, my roommate has already left for work and the house is empty. Usually, its very quiet and peaceful. However, today as I have several times before, I pulled up Pandora and blasted the music, to hear the melodies while showering. And thats not wrong or anything, but it made me think ... Do I replace silence with music at times so as to kill the silence?

What I mean is, when I am by myself w/ no one even nearby, do I (or you) use music to cancel the silence, to go on not having to think, to debate within ourselves, or to explore the deeper things of life. I ask this, cause if you are like me, when I am alone, I tend to think on the spiritual side, and subsequently the Lord will show me areas in my life that do not align with His standards, or lay someone on my heart to pray for, or whatever it may be (not always, but a lot of times this will happen). Are we avoiding introspection?

And for me, the shower is usually one of those places - the sound of the water is peaceful, there is no external ruckus, and I can think & pray. So I was thinking, what I explained above. Now I ask, what is in the silence that we do not like, b/c you & I both know someone who hates silence, & if ever there be any, they will fill it with some noise. But, more than that, I think there is some degree of discomfort among a large percentage of our population who hates silence (I have no evidence of this, other than myown observations).

Take for example: Here at Auburn University, I rarely see any students, who are alone, walking to or from class without an IPOD, texting, or some other form of impersonal empty space & time killer. I am not condemning this, cause I do it too at times. I am just curious ... does the Lord use the silence to awaken our heart toward him? Does the reflection of self scare us? What about the questions we have to ask ourselves, such as - What I am doing with my life? What will I do after I graduate? Is there a god? How can something this tradgic happen to my family? - or whatever we discuss within our own person, cause I know you all talk to yourself to some degree!

Are we missing something important in the silence when we deaden it with our rythyms and rhymes?